“But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16)

“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus…” (Phil 2: 1-5)

It’s easy to allow these verses to be eclipsed by the famous passage that comes next, in which Paul lifts Christ as our pattern of “lowliness of mind,” of doing nothing out of selfish ambition or conceit, of looking out for the interests of others. Love and Unity, writes Paul, will result If we have “this mind” in us; that to be like-minded is to have the mind of Christ, the mindset that took Jesus to the cross and brought Him glory. When we read this, our own witness to His light in our lives can seem like a flickering candle against the blazing sun of Calvary. But is this what Paul means?

The Starting Point
Let’s look at verses 1-2 again:

“Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfil my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.”

Paul wrote in Greek, not English. These are the words he used:

 “consolation“ is paraklēsis. It has the same root as the word paraklētos, which is the name that Jesus gives to the Holy Spirit in John 15:26 and is variously translated as the Helper, the Comforter, the Advocate, depending on which emphasis the translators of the different versions have given to the word. Basically “consolation” is everything that the Paraclete brings.

“Comfort” is paramythion. Whether this is translated as “comfort” or as “consolation” (not to be confused with the paraklēsis brought to us by the Holy Spirit), this has one meaning in Greek: it means “persuasive address.” This is about the impact on our lives by God’s love. Are we touched by it, or not?

“Fellowship”, as we may know, is koinonia. It means intimacy, communion, close fellowship, joint participation. It marked the lives of the early church communities, and we seek for it to be the same for our churches today.

Affection (splagchnon ) and mercy (oiktirmos)  are related: affection means “bowels” and is translated as such in the King James version. The “bowels“ were considered the seat of the tenderer emotions such as mercy, kindness and compassion that also characterise much of the fruit of the Spirit, and is the same word that Jesus uses for the place within us from which the living waters of the Spirit flow. Oiktirmos describes the emotions that flow from the splagchnon.

Basically verse one is saying “If there is actually is  any expression of the Holy Spirit in Christ… if love has any impact on you at all, if there is any mercy in your heart , then the very least you can do is be one mind, care about each other, set aside your own ambitions and pride, and have the same mindset as Jesus when He went to the Cross.” When we look at what Paul has actually said rather than what our translations have made of it, one thing is clear: true unity, the unity of the Spirit, is the starting point of our Christian walk, not the destination. Wow.

The way forward
Fortunately Paul gives the Philippians, and ourselves, a way forward as his letter unfolds, that enable us to ”press on toward the goal of the upward call of God in Christ.” (Phil 3:14) It is not a series of ministry sessions or intense or prolonged Bible study; and it is not an expectation to spend an hour and a half from 5:30 every morning seeking the presence of God before going to work- although all of these may well have their place at times.  They start in Phil 1: 9-11:

“And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that you may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ, being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.“

The “things that are excellent” that our love will abound in when we let the mind of Christ fill our thinking are defined towards the end of the letter, in chapter 4:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. (Phil 4:8-9)

Pressing out
In Pentecostal/charismatic circles we often talk about “pressing in” to the presence of God, and seeking His peace. The challenge to us in these verses is different, though. 1 John 1:5 tells us this: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all,”  and Jesus tells his disciples: “the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.” (John 14:30) There is nothing in the mind of Christ that is not excellent. The challenge to us is also a promise: if we fill our minds with the sort of things that Christ has in His, and if we live our lives out of them as he (Paul) did, God’s presence, and His peace, will manifestly be with us.

This is how we “approve what is excellent.”  This is the filter for our lives. This is the place where we take our thoughts captive; where, along with pressing into God, we press out what isn’t of Him. It is how we “renew our minds,” and is central to seeing the fruit of the Spirit (“The fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ”) abound in our lives. When Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians, he is returning to a theme he had already expressed to the Romans three or four years earlier, when he wrote: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12:2)

If we want to know the transformation that will result in us shining as lights to the world in this crooked and perverse generation, we start by filling our thinking with the light of Christ.